Faloon ruled out of Ulster’s crunch clash

A TRAINING accident has ruled Willie Faloon out of Ulster’s do-or-die Magners League clash against the in-form Dragons tonight.

Faloon slipped and fell on his shoulder while training last week and has failed to recover for a game in which Ulster must claim at least a loser’s bonus point to reach the semi-finals.

Although Ulster are without four internationals due to an assortment of injuries, coach Brian McLaughlin is able to recall Ireland’s Tom Court, and Declan Fitzpatrick who fills in for Springbok BJ Botha at tight-head.

Robbie Diack comes in for Faloon in the back-row at number eight with Pedrie Wannenburg moving to blindside flanker and Chris Henry at openside.

Meanwhile, Darren Cave starts only his second game since his hamstring problems as he fills in for Paddy Wallace in midfield alongside Nevin Spence.

He believes Ulster will have to step up a gear if they are to put one over the Dragons.

“I think I’ve played them six times and only ever beaten them once so they’re a bit of a bogey team for us,” said Cave.

“We will need to turn it on in Wales. This game is massively important. I think it would be ridiculously disappointing to think that our season could be over tonight when you think that a month ago we were aiming for the league top four and the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup.

“It’s in our hands. We’re going out to win and the bottom line is that if we win we’re in. Home or away it doesn’t matter, the next step is just getting there,” explained Cave, who is champing at the bit for some more action.

“Against Connacht it was the first time I’d played 80 minutes since the first weekend in October, so I’d spent a lot of time watching, and to get out there and do that just meant I felt a lot more confident about myself.

“My hamstring is fine, though after the game I was very tired. But I enjoyed a few days that we had off and now we’re all guns blazing,” the twice-capped Ireland player added.

“For me I’m trying to bring as much energy as possible to training as I’ve hardly played all season and the other guys are tired at this stage as they’ve physically been through a lot.”

DRAGONS: S Jones; A Hughes, T Riley, P Leach, A Brew; J Tovey, W Evans; P Price, L Burns, D Way; L Charteris, A Jones; D Lydiate, G Thomas, T Faletau.

Replacements: T Willis, H Gustafson, B Castle, A Coombs, J Bearman, M Watkins, J Evans, M Jones.

ULSTER: A D’Arcy; C Gilroy, D Cave, N Spence, S Danielli; I Humphreys, R Pienaar; T Court, R Best, D Fitzpatrick; J Muller, D Tuohy; P Wannenburg, C Henry, R Diack.

Replacements : A Kyriacou, P McAllister, J Cronin, T Barker, T Anderson, P Marshall, I Whitten, C Gaston.